Article by Larry Jock
What a week of fishing out of Ocean City. Now is the time to get a charter booked to take advantage of the excellent tuna, dolphin and marlin fishing we are seeing off our coast.
Canyon Kick-off
The Ocean City Marlin Club Canyon Kick-off was held this past weekend and the action was fast and furious on the first day when 23 boats hit the scales to weigh fish. Although the first day was the most active, the 2nd day provided most of the winning fish. The bigeye tuna brought in on the “Stress Reel-ief” had a lot of heads turning, as did the 7 white marlin released on “Spike’s Boat”.
Overall, it was a good tournament with some quality fish hitting the scales. You can see all the results starting on page 22.
Tilefish
Last Thursday, Capt. Monty Hawkins on the “Morning Star” took his anglers on a long, 16-hour trip where Jermaine Dickerson ended up landing a potential Maryland state record blueline tilefish that tipped the scales at 15.4 lbs. Jermaine caught the fish over an ocean reef on a chunk of clam. I say “potential”, because Maryland never had a state record category for blueline tilefish, but Capt. Monty has been in contact with DNR representatives who have told him that they will create one starting with this catch.
Flounder
Anglers continue to weed through a lot of “short” flounder to find their keeper. The throwback-to-keeper ratio can run as high as 25 to 1 on some days, but those willing to stick it out have been rewarded with some nice flatties.
Most of the flounder hooked last week came from the East Channel and up in the Thorofare. A few were caught at the mouth of the Commercial Harbor and down behind the Ocean City Airport. As always, finding clean, clear water was the key.
The largest flounder landed last week was Ryan Snyder’s 5-pounder caught on Sunday off the 4th Street Bulkhead. This area has produced a lot of nice fish this year. If you remember a few years ago, some structure was sunk along that bulkhead and those flounder are using it to stack up against. It has really turned into a productive area to fish. Just watch the snags.
Anglers using Gulp! artificial baits are really catching a lot of fish, but those using live spot seem to have the better chance at catching a keeper.
Croaker
What happened to the croaker everyone expected to be caught last week? They showed up briefly during the previous week, but last week were a no-show.
Bluefish
Bluefish were absent last week. Those that had been lurking around the Rt. 50 Bridge seemed to have vanished.
Sea Bass
We continued to see good catches of sea bass off the local headboats who are venturing off the coast to ocean wrecks and reefs. Anglers fishing with clams and squid are having good results.
Weakfish
I went fishing with my dad one night last week and actually caught a spike trout on a white Gulp! Swimming Mullet. We were drifting just south of the Bridge over by the West Channel. It was quite a surprise to see the weakfish since I probably haven’t caught one since I was 15 years old. Gillnetters also reported finding weakfish in their nets last week. Small fish in the 10-12 inch range.
Could we be seeing a comeback for this species? For those of us who fished back in the 70’s, you know that was a primary species that we caught. If you didn’t catch weakfish, especially in the Delaware Bay, you probably went home with nothing. Some folks blame the lack of weakfish on netters at the mouth of the Delaware Bay. I believe it is the result of the historical comeback of striped bass. I once saw a chart that showed the estimated population of striped bass versus the population of weakfish. The graphs were mirror opposites of each other. When striped bass were hurting, weakfish thrived. As striped bass increased in population, the weakfish stock decreased almost at the same rate. Pretty interesting.
Marlin
Several blue marlin were hooked last week. On Friday, the “Tuna Box” hooked 4 blue marlin, getting 2 to the boat, while fishing in 70 fathoms inside the Poor Man’s Canyon. On Sunday, the “Playmate”, “Jade II” and the “Always Late” each released blue marlin in the Poor Man’s.
White marlin were caught in good numbers throughout the week, with the top catch coming on Friday when “Spike’s Boat” released 7 in the Washington Canyon. The majority of boats recorded 1-3 releases during their trip to either the Washington Canyon or the south end of the Poor Man’s. Only a few were cut loose in the Baltimore Canyon.
Bigeye Tuna
Conditions have been ripe for catches of bigeye tuna in our canyons and on Saturday, the “Stress Reel-ief” boated three of them weighing between 87.2 and 142.6 lbs. The fish were caught on ballyhoo and spreader bars at the south end of the Poor Man’s Canyon.
Yellowfin Tuna
Once again, yellowfin tuna hit the docks in big numbers throughout the week with some of the best fishing we have seen in years. On Tuesday, the “Marli” boated 24 yellowfins and “That’s Right” had 19, all in the Washington Canyon. “That’s Right” followed that up with another 14 on Wednesday. On Thursday, the bite shifted to the southern end of the Poor Man’s Canyon, where “Rhonda’s Osprey” captured 17 yellowfins and the “Fish Bonz” returned with 8 in the box.
With the 1st day of the Canyon Kick-Off on Friday, a lot of boats headed to the Poor Man’s where loads of tuna were caught. Most of the fish weighed between 40 and 50 lbs. “Rhonda’s Osprey” and “That’s Right” each returned with 13 yellowfins, while the “Banshee” ended up with 11 in the box.
The weekend produced some excellent catches, still mainly in the Poor Man’s Canyon. “Moore Bills” caught 10 on Saturday and several boats recorded catches of 3-4 yellowfins during their trip.
Bluefin Tuna
A few bluefins were caught last week by boats fishing at the Fingers, Jackspot and in Massey’s Canyon. On Monday, the “Anticipation” boated a 105 pounder at the Fingers. Over the weekend, “Hammer Down” captured an 88.4 lb.bluefin at the Parking Lot on Saturday and on Sunday, the “Why Not” captured an 82 pounder in Massey’s Canyon.
Wahoo
It’s still a little too early for good wahoo fishing off our coast, with most still heading north from the Bahamas. The only wahoo we saw last week came in on Friday when the “Marli” arrived with one caught in the Washington Canyon. A late report arrived on Monday morning that a boat landed a 50 pounder on Sunday. We should have that picture in next weeks issue.
Dolphin
For the last 3 weeks, we have seen the average size of dolphin caught increasing each week, and last week continued the trend.
Many mahi over 20 lbs. were landed and even a few over 30 lbs. as well. Two anglers caught 38 pounders during the week. On Thursday, Keith Kaler landed one in the Washington Canyon and Chris Ragni landed one the next day near the 461 Lump. Chris also had a 32 pounder on that same trip.
There aren’t any local tournaments on the schedule this weekend.
The following weekend is the Ocean City Tuna Tournament at the Ocean City Fishing Center. The tournament runs from Friday, July 15th to Sunday, July 17th. Weigh-ins are from 4:00 to 7:30 pm on Friday and Saturday and 4:00 to 7:00 pm on Sunday.
I hope everyone enjoys the off weekend for tournaments and has a great time fun-fishing!
